A Life In Photography – by Edward Steichen *1984

A Life In Photography – by Edward Steichen *1984

A LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHY – 1984
by Edward Steichen
Lillian Gish by Edward Steichen (Steichen, 27 January 1927). Half Tone Print
Lillian Gish by Edward Steichen (Steichen, 27 January 1927). Half Tone Print
The first time I saw Lillian Gish, other than on the movie screen, was as she walked into my studio to be photographed for Vanity Fair. As the saying goes, I was knocked for a loop. It was as if an angel had come into the place. Every movement she made and everything she said seemed full of magic. I made pictures fast and wildly and believed they were all wonderful. But that night, when I looked at the negatives, even before seeing the proofs, I realized I didn’t have anything at all. I had allowed my emotional reaction to take charge of that sitting and had lost all charge of myself. This was a valuable lesson, but a very embarrassing one, for I had to go to Miss Gish with the proofs and beg her to come and sit again for me. She was very gracious about my chagrin. When she came again, I decided to do a fanciful version of Romola, a romantic role she was planning to undertake. I put flowers in her hair and then let her own sweetness and youngness take over (plate 116).
Portrait Edward Steichen 1919 C5 Lillian Gish
Portrait Edward Steichen 1919 C5 Lillian Gish

Quite a few years later, on the edge of my pond in the country, I did some studies of Lillian Gish as Ophelia. We had talked about the moment, described in Hamlet, when Ophelia “fell in the weeping brook” and drowned.
Lillian Gish as Ophelia, 1936, by Edward Steichen
Lillian Gish as Ophelia, 1936, by Edward Steichen
I had thought a lot about producing the quality of Ophelia’s madness, and one of the things I had prepared was some infrared film and an infrared filter. I knew this would turn Miss Gish’s eyes into dark spots and help give a wild look. But the success of the picture lay in Miss Gish’s performance. From the moment she stepped to the edge of the pond and grasped the trailing branch of the willow tree, she was no longer Lillian Gish. She had become Ophelia, “a document in madness” (plate 117).
Edward Steichen – Lillian Gish as Ophelia, 1936
Edward Steichen – Lillian Gish as Ophelia, 1936
A life in photography
A life in photography

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